Levi Drops Out of High School

The news was buried in an AP story yesterday. Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin's fiancé and soon-to-be baby daddy has dropped out of high school. He informed a reporter in what sounded like a casual interview that took place on his driveway. The news is surprising only insomuch as how closely it follows the national statistics on teen sex and pregnancy. Levi now falls into his predestined spot alongside all other teens dropping out of high school to prematurely become adults because of unplanned parenthood.

Levi has been a stand-up guy, no doubt. He's made difficult choices (under the bright national spotlight). But will they pay off for him and his loved ones? While we know a lot more about the impact of teen motherhood on girls, we have some idea what early parenthood does to fathers. Teen fathers have lower education levels and suffer earning losses of 10-15 percent annually which may mean that prosperity escapes people like Levi and Bristol.

It's not hard to feel for these teens. It's also not hard to think that their predicament was the result of lack of information about how to protect themselves once they have strayed from their abstinence plan, the one Bristol's mom championed. And while there's been a lot of focus on the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education, little attention has been paid to its side effects even when it works. For example, it's a gateway to early marriage. It's not just those who traded in their virginity pledge for an unintended pregnancy, like Bristol and Levi, who are susceptible. Even the most diligent abstainers are likely to marry much earlier; heavy petting their way down the aisle. The Center for Law and Social Policy found that the number of married teenagers in the US jumped by nearly 50 percent in the 1990s, the decade during which abstinence-only programs became all the rage. The report credits the spike in early marriage to the sudden emphasis on abstinence-until-marriage.

And the irony of it all is that while Christian conservatives vehemently defend these programs, they are often upset by the results. According to the Guttmacher Institute, "Teen marriages are highly unstable." In fact, the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University reports, people who marry in their teens are two to three times more likely to divorce than people who marry in their twenties or older.

We all truly wish Bristol and Levi the best of luck. Given the statistical pool they're diving into, it is no doubt what they'll need.

For breaking news on threats to birth control access and information visit birthcontrolwatch.org

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Comments

[laucarlson]

So why can't they just get married now? Why put it off till summer, as if they had so much else to do in the meantime? Especially since neither one is going to school. This smells fishy

[sansone]

Levi dropping out of high school....­.hum....co­uld it be he does not want to outshine his future monster-in-law?

[kstuff]

I smell a republican pay-off!

[JennyJay]

In my opinion you all are giving Levi way too much credit. I doubt that a few more classes in
history or math is going to change is life in any way. He will never have an interest in anything
but sports and sex.
So he will work in the oil fields like a lot of his freinds, and he will love his life, and will probably
have a great life. . Give the kid a break.
The kids we should really care about are the ones who desperately want an education, and
will never be able to get it - thanks to this Republican mob.

[BlackJAC]

Still, a high school diploma would get him a better paycheck with which to support Bristol & Baby. How likely will promotions and consequently pay raises be for him without that level of education?

[MissTristate]

Well considering Levi is going to be well taken care of by Gov Palin and her family it seems as though he has decided he does not need an education to live off of other people's money. Hummmm, very dumb decision on his part, but can you blame him? He is a teenager who sees fame and fortune and hops on for the ride. Unfortunately, he will have to pay for this in the future being that Gov. Palin's plan isn't going as she wanted it. It is obvious she is worried about herself and her OWN image so that she can stay relevant to Americans and in the spot light. She could give two shyts about what her kids decide or Levi for that matter. She is ensuring that she can run for President come 2012.

[TeresaInPa]

good lord........people, it is none of your business.

[shirleen01]

Hold up! let this had been one of Obama's children. He would have been disqualified!

[blaqntelligence]

I say AMEN to shireleen01, while agreeing with JennyJay:
"So he will work in the oil fields like a lot of his freinds, and he will love his life, and will probably
have a great life. . Give the kid a break."

[jeanrenoir]

Levi is just as redneck as he always boasted himself to be. What a wonderful example he is for American teens in general. Amazingly, we've never had a VP family as authentically redneck as the Palin-Johnston crowd. No wonder the American mob sees them as "just like us." What a recommendation for running the country! What a reductio ad absurdum of forty years of demagoguery starting with Wallace's populist appeal to the fool auto workers of Michigan in the '68 Democratic primary which he won with these tactics. If it weren't for the economic crisis the American white mob would no doubt elect Palin-McCain because the mob feels so "at home" with them, and so alienated from the intelligence, education-level, and general civility and competence of the Obamas, a fully functioning family which makes Cosby's TV clan look second-class in comparison.

[Terriac]

This is a sad story. I saw the news about Levi dropping out of school and thought here was a perfect example of making a bad situation even worse. These kids are being forced to take on responsibilities well beyond their years, and are having to sacrifice dearly for it. This abstinence only thing just does not work. I guess I had never thought about the other ramifications of that practice beyond teen pregnancy, which is the early marriage age for these kids. It's a disaster on every possible level. I don't know what Bristol and Levi knew about birth control, but clearly they are a product of the failed abstinence only practice. And being under a national spotlight, with the McCain campaign, just makes it all the more difficult for these kids to make any other choices than they're making. Maybe they would make the same choice, but now they're obligated. It's sad.

[BlackJAC]

Condom-free zones don't work, for law-abiding people won't be able to get condoms when they need them. If condoms are outlawed, only outlaws will have condoms.

[JayInDallas]

Dumb and dumber. A continuing lapse of reason. Levi takes the on-ramp into a dead end. Where are the parents? Hey, Levi. How long do you think you'll hold that job before you yearn for advancement and regret not finishing High School? How long into your marriage before you resent the situation you are actively creating? These are KIDS. I don't care if its Alaska or Alabama, without some guidance, some leadership, this is going to be a news blurb that everyone will not be surprised became a statistic.

[Territc]

Why does he have to drop out of school? Is there some written law that says pregnant kids must drop out of school? If yes, then his parents and the Palins must make sure that both Levi and Bristol either go to night school or get tutors. They need to finish their education and get a degree. We all know where no education leads to. Joblessness and hopelessness and a never ending cycle which will just pass from generation to generation.

[Annieke]

I feel for Bristol and Levi intensly.

Although at this moment, they may not feel themselves forced in this marriage, their early marriage and parenthood indeed will have its effects for decades to come.
They will have a lower income than their friends from school who will move on to college and have an advanced education. Especially in the western economies where much easy labour is being 'outsourced' to India, China and the likes, knowledge and a good education is vital for social success.

As for marrying young...poor kids. I am 35 and although I had a boyfriend at college and thought the world of him and was over the moon with him, now I know that a life with him would not have worked. It is OK in college, but life after college asks different thing from you and a significant other.
You can only pick a good person for yourself if you know yourself through and through and let's face it...who did know himself/ herself at the tender age of 17, 18, 19? I sure didn't.
Only when you know yourself and you know what to look for in another person, how someone can complete you.
This marriage has such a high chance of failure. Hopefully I am wrong because I think Ma Palin will not look kindly upon a divorced daughter. Doesn't fit the picture-perfect Kodak-moment.

[likeicare]

I read a blog from a reporter in Alaska, who was present at the "homecoming event" for Palin, right after the Rethuglican convention. He said that both Levi and Bristol were seated in the bleachers, erected for the scene, next to each other, but they never made eye contact or even exchanged a word between them -- not once! That seems strange, in light of Levi's comments about his impending shotgun wedding.

I agree with earlier posters, who say that Levi's being bought off -- he's already snagged a job on the North Slope project.

Bristol and Levi deserve each other -- if they allow a loud-mouthed bully like Sarah Palin to dictate their future.

[suhud]

What kind of a message to unwed teens are Palin and that boy's parents sending? That it's cool to be a high school dropout, making minimum wage? That it's too elitist to support your kids during their last year of secondary education, because now they're pregnant? C'mon, it's not like Palin is hurting for moola. Does she simply NOT make time to counsel her daughter and son-in-law-to-be? Even Levi's hockey coach went public with his regret over that decision. How sad. How ignorant. Makes one wonder if Bristol's dropped out, too.

[Scott3843]

Bravo, suhud. My sentiments exactly.

Who is advising these kids? The Palins obviously have money. They couldn't help Bristol, Levi and spawn out for their first few months of family life until the teens graduated from high school? They could certainly afford some sort of childcare, much more so than other families in similar predicaments. What a bad, bad idea. Children dropping out of school to produce more children is a fabulous answer to life's problems. Enjoy the sixpacks, Joe ... I mean Levi. So much for the preposterous 'abstience only' theory.

One more reason to think even less of Sarah Palin. Just what the world needed. How sad.

[bronceye]

As long as Alaska has oil and fish, he will make higher than average income.

[StephanieF24]

picture this situation...
As a teenage girl, the most mortifying thing in the world is for you parents to find out about your sex life- especially if they are vehement abstinence only believers. Imagine you are 16, with "the love of your life" who you honestly do plan to spend your life with (which is what all girls believe about their first loves). You have raging hormones- your a teen- so a sexual relationship is the most natural thing in the world! Now imagine you live in a small town of 7000 people that is surrounded by mountains. Imagine it takes an hour to get to the next town (i dont know, just a guess). Imagine your mother was once the mayor and is now the governor. Even if you are aware of birth control, are you going to walk into the pharmacy to get it? Everybody knows your name, it will get back to your parents.

When your 16, this is the worst thought in the world. Could you imagine what her parents would do if they found out before the whole country did? It is easier to to take the chance and just not use protection. I feel bad for Bristol and Levi. Imagine how scared they are. Imagine how millions of young girls and boys feel across the country. Nationwide, the reason for not using protection may be different, but the result is all the same: babies are raising babies themselves.